Smart Edit (SCH)

The Smart Edit dialog.

Summary

The Smart Edit dialog offers designers two different methods for performing powerful and complex string modifications.

Access

From the:

• Sch List or the SCHLIB List panel, select the string-type cell entries you wish to modify for the required objects, right-click, and select Smart Edit from the context menu.
• SCH Inspector or the SCHLIB Inspector panel, when there are multiple objects selected that have a string property an elipsis button  will appear in the string field, click this to open the Smart Edit dialog.

Options/Controls

Batch Replace Tab

This tab is used for string substitutions. Click inside the From field and enter the portion of the current string that you wish to replace. Then click inside the To field and enter the string to be used as the replacement. The standard string substitution syntax is displayed at the bottom of the tab.

For example, a design has a large number of net labels in the form:

GeneralPurpose_IO1, GeneralPurpose_IO2, and so on.

To change these to:

User_IO1, User_IO2, and so on,

enter the existing section of string to be replaced in the From field, and the replacement section of string in the To field. Note that the string substitution that is about to be performed is displayed at the bottom of the tab.

Formula Tab

This tab provides for more advanced modification, allowing you to apply a specific expression to the selected string objects. The expression can include any built-in arithmetic operators and functions that apply to strings (found in Pascal). If you wish to use the current value for the attribute as part of the expression, you will need to make reference to this original value, either by using the full name of the attribute, or by using the exclamation character (the supported substitute for the name of the attribute currently being modified). When using attribute names, if any names contain spaces, these must be replaced by the underscore character. So, for example, use of the Component Designator field within a formula should be entered as Component_Designator.

Consider for example three selected memory components specified in a design, with designators U1, U3 and U5. You might want to extend the designators of these components by including some indication of their role. After loading the required components (or designators) into the List or Inspector panel, open the Smart Edit dialog using the techniques described in the Access section above.

In the Formula tab, you could write an expression to add to the existing string value of the Name attribute. This would take the existing (original) string value and concatenate it with a specified new string, as illustrated below:

Name + '_MEM'

or, in shortened form:

! + '_MEM'

Note that the spaces are optional. After clicking OK the designators of the components will be updated to U1_MEM, U3_MEM and U5_MEM respectively.